Ironstar Underworld
by GnurlenTheInsane
Summary: Glitch gets sent on a new mission to return to Morbot Land to discover where he truly came from. No flaming, please, my first fic! new chapters coming soon! Disclaimer: I do not own Metal Arms, though I do own Vix and Corrupt!
1. A New Mission and a New Soldier

**Chapter 1: A New Mission and a New Soldier**

Everywhere he looked, an enemy. Quick, jerky movements had saved his life more than once. He tried as hard as he could to conserve ammo, but his mind couldn't program a strategy quickly enough. The enemies were coming too fast. However, before he knew it, only one was left; one shot, one enemy. He would have to be extremely careful. He waited. The injured Zombie-bot lunged: a fatal mistake. The scatter blaster's shot hit it straight in the heart. The Zombie-bot was pushed back by the sheer force and fell into such small pieces that you couldn't tell bullet from body.

Since his defeat of General Corrosive and the deprogramming of the Mils, Glitch had been very highly praised and promoted to an Elite Soldier, only because that was as high as the rankings went. Glitch had always been an awesome warrior.

"Well, well! I'm impressed!" A familiar voice boomed as the speaker, Colonel Alloy, came into the room. "You done good, Glitch. You beat every enemy out of hundreds on the first time you've ever done the level."

The little yellow droid looked surprised. The colonel had never called him anything but "kid" or even "soldier" from time to time.

"Permission to reboot, Colonel?" the deepening voice of the small robot asked.

"I believe that's enough training for today."

"Thank you, Colonel!" Glitch answered enthusiastically, getting ready to go rocketing out of the training building.

"But I have a mission for you." Colonel Alloy stopped Glitch in his tracks. The look on his face was one of puzzlement. "You know you're different from the other droids."

Glitch stood up taller. _My mark..._

Though he had never understood why, he had always been less blocky than the rest of the Droid army, and had a few more tools that even he didn't know how to use. But most importantly, he had an odd, foreign mark on the back of his head, one that was created of almost crude lines and symbols.

"We believe you are of Morbot descent. You must re-enter Morbot Land, and discover your heritage, for lack of a better word."

Glitch nodded solemnly, going off to have a little break with the other soldiers, but not telling them of this new mission. _Morbot?_ He looked very similar to other droids. Was it that he had been a failed Morbot reproduction of a Droid? He could well be the prototype of an artificial droid army...like the Mils had once created. He shuddered.

After his break he went to his bunk to gather his weapons and change his oil. Then, tense as he could be, he walked to the door to Morbot Land, where the Colonel was waiting.

"Alright kid, even though you've done this before, we're sending someone with you," He announced. Alloy made an odd gesture with his had to signal the opening of a door, where two droid scientists shoved an odd-looking droid through.

"Let go of me!" the weird droid said. It was purple rather than yellow, and its eyes were green. There was something about the droid's voice that seemed different, and the body was built differently as well.

"This here is Vix," Said Colonel Alloy, "She's a prototype of a new type of Droid our scientists are working on."

"_She?_" Glitch queried. All the Droids of the army had been male, and there were few females on Ironstar as there was no need for them with robots who built up the population by building.

"That's right, dipstick," She said grumpily, glaring at the Elite soldier. "Don't go making fun of me or trying to treat me different because I'm a girl! I can operate a Rocket Launcher just as well as you! I probably can decipher a code better too..."

"Pardon her," one of the scientists said, "She's still a prototype, and she's not as well-behaved as she should be. Vix is one sniper, though."

The female couldn't suppress a smile. She narrowed her eyes in satisfaction from the comment, keeping the green glow focused on Glitch.

The other scientist spoke up. "You'll have to show some respect, though, Vix. This is your Colonel and an Elite Soldier."

Vix's eyes grew wide. She looked from the scientist to Glitch and back, then bowed her head in recognition. The scientists returned to their lab, and the Elite soldier began to instruct the prototype bot on how to get into Morbot Land the safest way.

"It's best to climb on it and sit on the rim," he said, "That way, when he opens the door, you can slide in on your feet and you'll land without getting hurt too badly." The purple droid only nodded.

"Ready?" The Colonel said, "3...2...1..." And he opened the door.

(End Chapter)


	2. Familiar Territory, or not

Chapter 2: Familiar Territory...or not

The droids were sucked into a weird vortex, falling for what seemed like forever into the core of Ironstar. Finally, they landed onto cold, bluish stone. Vix looked around. This was a ruin of what had once been a high-tech research facility that was like one big laboratory.

"So _this_ is Morbot Land?" She said, "Tsk. Not so great."

Glitch glanced at her, but said nothing as he began to walk forward, turning on his headlight to see details of engravings in the dark. "So, what can you do?" He asked.

She seemed surprised. "What do you mean?"

"They didn't just send you down here to test a prototype."

She rolled her eyes. "Professor Mindvolt told you that I'm a really good sniper, but that's not the only thing I can do. Doctor Metalhead programmed me to learn quickly. I can decipher codes just as well as any supercomputer," she boasted.

"I see. So they sent me, a big, strong, elite soldier to protect the nerd?" he joked.

She glared at him, anger flashing in her green eyes. She mumbled, "I don't need protecting," but didn't boldly argue.

The walked around, unsuccessful in their searchings for a while. Then Vix stumbled upon something she had never seen before.

"What is with this big gaping hole? Did Mobroots drill it or something? What does it do?" She queried, peering down into the hole.

Glitch rolled his eyes. "First of all, it's _Morbots_, not _Mobroots_. Second of all, just don't worry about the hole." Almost as soon as he had said it, he heard Vix's piercing scream.

"Glitch!" She cried. He spun around just in time to see her hand dissappear into the teleport hole. He dove in after the bot, desperate not to lose such a valuble prototype. She may have thought she didn't need protection, but Vix had no idea how wrong she was.

He fell for what seemed like longer than it was. Vix had fallen far enough that he couldn't spot her with his headlight. After a bit, he flipped over so he would land on his feet seconds later. He landed with a clunk to find Vix sitting on her rump, staring at the completely solid ceiling above her.

"That was a teleport hole," Glitch said before she could ask, "We think Morbots drilled it so they could move around their land more quickly."

She blinked before saying, "I knew that," though a slight squeak in her voice betrayed the fact that she was lying. She got up as Glitch began to turn around, noticing for the first time the mark on his head. "Stop," she said suddenly. The yellow droid halted, turning his head and beginnign to open his mouth to say "What", but she stopped him with a command before any words could come out. "Keep your head still!" He immediately turned his head to face forward while moving as little as he could. He knew how important it was for the code-cracker to know what she was looking for. He felt her cold metal finger trace the marks on his head, the electric charges that moved her joints literally sending shivers down his spine. How it hurt! However, he said nothing and only set his jaw.

She was quiet for several moments. "Well, what are you waiting for?" She snapped, making Glitch jump. He nodded and began to run to a tunnel just big enough for a droid to slip through. He looked back to make sure she was following, then skidded to a halt in front of what appeared to be a sign. "Vix, come here."

She was already there when he said it, already working the gears in her brain hard to decipher the Morbot language. "The...the react... the reactor! Yes, the reactor is... The reactor is... is the k... is the key! The reactor is the key to..."

Just then Glitch heard a Mining laser charge behind his back, the heat threatening to melt the metal in his spine.

"And just what do you think _you're_ doing here?"

(End Chapter)


	3. Survivor

Chapter 3: Survivor

They both were silent for what felt like an eternity. If Glitch could sweat, he would have looked like he had jumped in a swimming pool from the heat of the gun at his back. Vix cleared her throat nervously before turning around to face the speaker. "We are peaceful researchers. Explorers looking for an answer."

"Ah," said the rough voice, "You mean your friend here's Engraving?"

He was a suspicious character, a red droid that looked very much like Glitch, with the same marks on his head of circles and lines. He even had the same different body type. His eyes, decidedly amber, were full of itching curiosity and an almost paranoid will to defend himself. He lowered his gun before opening his mouth to speak again.

"The name's Corrupt," He said in a voice that sounded like his voicebox was rusty, "I'm a Morbot _rhictora_ bot. You're an odd droid, you purple one. I've never seen a droid built like you with such a light voicebox, not even above ground."

Vix took offense. "I'm a prototype of Droid female warriors. I was just created two weeks ago."

"Ah," Corrput said, nodding, "that explains it. So, she-droid, what buisness have you here?"

Vix liked him better already. _She-droid _was a much better name than _lady_ or _nerd_.

Glitch coughed. "I think she already told you," he said gingerly, as though one wrong word could get him or the prototype he was escorting killed. "You actually seem like you can help us," he continued more confidently as he heard no gun loading from behind, "you sounded like you knew what my mark was." He turned around to face the red droid.

Corrupt nodded again. "Follow me, I'll explain on the way."

Glitch and Vix exchanged a suspiscious glance. They knew from an old story of a Droid explorer who found himself trapped in a small cave that not all who help you are your friends.

The red droid seemed to know what they were thinking. "Oh, don't worry, I'm friendly enough not to lead you into a trap."

Glitch visibly tensed. His eyes narrowed, suspicious of everyone after he joined the army so long ago. However, he followed, right behind Vix, who had gone as soon as Corrupt told them there was nothing to worry about.

The droids slid down steep rocky hills and avoided teleport holes for a long time. During the walk, Corrupt began to explain.

"Glitch, you aren't an above-ground droid."

"What?" Glitch responded immediately. He had been a droid above ground for as long as he could remember. Why was this droid lying?

"You're a Morbot _richtora_. Like me."

Glitch's eyes narrowed again. He didn't want to be just like this Corrupt. This one was far too suspiscious and rash. Glitch didn't even know what a "richtora" _was_.

"I suppose I should explain. A _richtora_ is a Morbot droid-"

"Knew that," came Vix's voice, followed by a yawn of boredom as they rounded a corner. The males turned around sharply, giving her different looks: Glitch gave her a "you-are-the-biggest-idiot-on-the-planet-for-saying-something-so-dumb" glare, while Corrupt betrayed a mix of respect for her directness and amusement from the random voice.

"What?" she said, shrugging. "We did."

"Continue without another interruption, Corrupt?" Glitch's reply was sharp as an iron spike, cutting through Vix's arrogance like a knife. The burning rage in his glare dug into her, turning her confidence into a general sense of being uncomfortable. She had to plant her feet firmly in the ground to keep from shrinking away, but standing still was not Vix's specialty, so she walked briskly forward with her head down to walk next to Corrupt.

"Of course. What was I saying... Oh, yes! _Richtora._ It's a droid created by Morbots to maintain the Reactor."

Glitch stopped in his tracks. The Reactor! Lately Ironstar's power had been unsteady, and the air pulsed with uncomforting electricity. As soon as he had entered Morbot Land, those pulses had become stronger—in fact, they were getting more irritating as he walked. Perhaps the shortage of Morbot _rhictora_ had caused the Reactor to malfunction slightly. Vix mashed her fingers to her temples like the pulses were bothering her.

"Yeah, she-droid," Corrupt said, "that's the Reactor falling apart."


End file.
